Part 27 (1/2)
”What are you on the track of now?” asked Nort.
”A Brontotherium,” answered the professor.
”What did he say--a bronco?” asked Bud. ”We've got some over at our place you can have for nothing,” he added with a laugh. ”They're not dead yet, though some of the boys who tried to ride 'em wish they were.”
”A Brontotherium,” explained Professor Wright, ”is an extinct animal, something like the rhinoceros, but much larger--more than the size of an elephant, I hope to prove. There are indications that I may find the bones here.”
”I hope you do,” remarked d.i.c.k.
The boys wandered around the camp, and were about to leave the scene of the digging and excavating when Nort uttered an exclamation.
”What's the matter?” asked his brother.
”Look! There's Del Pinzo!” exclaimed Nort, and, surely enough, the figure of the wily Greaser or half-breed was seen moving among the men engaged by the professor to help him and his a.s.sistant in digging up fossil bones.
”You have that rascal again, I see, Professor,” said Bud rather coldly.
”Well, he certainly is a great help,” was the answer. ”He has great influence over the Mexican laborers.”
”Too much,” grimly remarked Bud. They went away, paying no further attention to Del Pinzo though he smiled at them in what he doubtless intended for a genial manner.
”What do you make of it, Bud?” asked Nort.
”Of what?”
”Professor Wright having that rascal with him?”
”Well,” remarked Bud, with as judicial an air as he could a.s.sume on short notice, ”you can look at it in two ways.”
”For instance?” suggested d.i.c.k, teasingly. ”We're in for something good, now,” he whispered to his brother, though not so low but that Bud could not hear.
”Well, either Professor Wright knows Del Pinzo is a rascal, and takes to him in spite of that, or he doesn't know it--though how he can be ignorant I can't understand,” declared Bud. ”If he doesn't--he's the only one who knows the game who thinks Del is any better than a common, onery horse thief!”
”Maybe something will happen, soon, to open his eyes,” suggested Nort, as they rode on.
When they reached the headquarters at Diamond X they found Sheriff Hank Fowler in earnest conversation with Mr. Merkel.
”Anything doing, Dad?” asked Bud.
”Yes. I'm summoned to court to prove my t.i.tle to the Spur Creek land,”
was the answer. ”Hank has just served me with the papers.”
”I'm tellin' him he don't need to worry none,” said Mr. Fowler, with a genial grin. ”He can easy prove his t.i.tle.”
”Perhaps not so easy as you think,” remarked Mr. Merkel, ”since my papers are missing. If I could only get them back!”
”And I think I have a plan that will get them back!” suddenly exclaimed Nort.